Bad Wolf (and other drabbles)
by kerithwyn
Summary: The start of a drabble collection, to be amended at whim. Mostly Tamsin, some other.
1. Bad Wolf

**Bad Wolf**

Fandom: Lost Girl

Characters: Dyson/Kenzi

Rating: M

Summary: The fairytale is true.

Notes: Obvious drabble is obvious. (Tip of the hat to Meat Loaf.)

* * *

"So tell me, D-man," Kenzi drawled over the remnants of far too many empty shot glasses, "what's the story with Red Riding Hood? Did the wolf really eat her all up?"

Dyson smiled to himself. "From a certain point of view."

"Don't go all Obi-Wan on me."

He drained his beer and turned to face her. "Yes, he did. He licked her with his rough tongue until she was screaming, writhing under his touch. Would you offer your throat to the wolf?"

"You don't have any roses." Kenzi's pulse belied the steadiness of her gaze. "But I could wear red."


	2. Ravens and Wolves

**Ravens and Wolves**

Character: Tamsin

Rating: T

Notes: If Tamsin's truly a valkyrie, all the mythology's up for grabs.

* * *

Tamsin remembers running with wolves and ravens, symbols of her lost lord's dominion. It's fitting, now, that she stands with a woman of ravens at one shoulder and a man of wolves at the other.

So arbitrary, this division of dark and light. She has been a scream of battle on the wind; she has been a whisper of mercy to the dying. Both wolves and ravens feed on the corpses left behind by war and that, Tamsin knows, makes them closer kin than any disagreement over the treatment of mortals.

So foolish, to be forced to choose between them.


	3. Unkindness of Ravens

**Unkindness of Ravens**

Character: Tamsin

Rating: T

Notes: Post 3x03. I'm just gonna keep looting the mythology until something breaks.

* * *

She'd told Bo true: They weren't supposed to remember their parasite-induced exploits.

But Tamsin found the idea of lost time unacceptable, and she had extraordinary resources.

She arranged herself as comfortably as possible in her small bare room-what was earthly adornment, to one who had lived in Valhalla?-and closed her eyes.

"_Muninn_," she whispered on an exhaled breath, and the floodgates opened.

Tamsin saw it in her mind's eye, the memory returned clear. The way she'd kissed Bo, her easy happiness, the way she'd laughed. She'd inscribed her forbidden secrets, invited forsworn sympathy.

The succubus was dangerous, indeed.

* * *

A vaguely related epigram, because it pleases me:

"Hey," said Shadow. "Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are."

The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.

"Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.

"Fuck you," said the raven.

― Neil Gaiman, _American Gods_


	4. Shieldmaiden

**Shieldmaiden**

Character: Tamsin

Rating: T

Notes: Post 3x06. This wasn't supposed to be the all-Tamsin drabble set, but if she keeps being so awesome, what else am I supposed to do?

* * *

The three of them look at her with pity, as if they believe she doesn't know what it is to feel friendship such as they have. To feel love.

Insulting. Condescending. Most of all, wrong.

Tamsin knew sisterhood stronger than blood, bound by oaths of steel and magic. She has had lovers, loved, been loved. She has felt these things more deeply than those mistakenly sympathetic eyes could imagine.

She's lost them, too, to circumstances beyond her control and as a result of her own nature.

These soft creatures of light can take their misplaced compassion and choke on it.


	5. Howl

**Howl**

Fandom: Lost Girl

Pairing: Dyson/Hale

Rating: T

Summary: That post-battle adrenaline needs to be worked off somehow.

Notes: I wanted Dyson to apologize to Hale after his behavior in season 2. And "apologize."

* * *

They beat the Garuda and no one died-permanently, anyway-during the final battle. All things considered, Hale was willing to call that a win.

People were still drifting around the Dal in the aftermath, taking stock of themselves. Bo had gone after Kenzi, and Hale hoped the human would confess to whatever was bothering her, whether it was that rash on her arm or something else. He was fond of her-probably too fond-and it was just as well that she'd moved out of his radius before something unseemly happened.

Dyson glanced over his way and seemed to hesitate. Hale really wasn't in the mood to coddle wolfly moodiness, so he threw back a shot from the bottle that Trick was pouring out freely and took the initiative, walking over to where Dyson was leaning against the bar. _Posing_, Hale might have thought in less-complicated times. "We're good, right?"

"Yeah." Dyson smiled, a little sheepishly. Ironic, that. "I'm sorry I bugged out on you."

"Not just me," Hale said quickly.

Dyson read him anyway. "You're my partner. I should've-" he glanced away. "I should've done a lot of things differently."

_Ciara_, his body language sang. And _Bo_. Hale heard the mournful notes of grief and loss, written across Dyson's spare frame. "You came back. That's what counts."

"Glad to hear you say that." Dyson regarded him steadily. "Listen, about your sister-"

Hale flapped a hand. "Bygones." He made a decision, eyed his partner from under the brim of his hat. "You want to make it up to me, though..."

Dyson laughed, the first honest sound Hale had heard out of him in weeks. "Been awhile. Didn't think you were still interested."

He tried to cover his discomfort with a shrug. "Battle fever, you know, makes a body itchy."

"So you think I make a good scratching post?" Dyson mocked, but his voice held a warmth Hale thought lost. That warmth gathered, pooled low in his stomach, sent his eyes darting toward the door.

"My place?"

"We'll take my bike," Dyson said, already on the move. Hale grinned to himself-clearly, he wasn't the only one feeling the fight's aftereffects.

He remembered the feel of Dyson's clever hands and hurried to catch up.


	6. Pretender to the Throne

**Pretender to the Throne of the Phantom Queen**

Character: Tamsin

Post 3x06.

* * *

This woman doesn't deserve the title.

The Morrigan was (is) a goddess of battle. A terrifying spirit of the battlefields, kin to Tamsin's own kind. Black bird, death omen, lady of strife.

Evony is a pale simpering shadow next to that memory. Seduction is all very well and fine, a perfectly acceptable tactic in either love or war. But she has no restraint, this "Morrigan." She has no honor, this woman cloaked in borrowed raven's finery. She pretends to a grandeur that she could never equal.

Tamsin lets her believe in her dominion, right up until the moment of defiance.


	7. Modern Art

**Modern Art**

Character: Tamsin

Once you really start researching, the incongruity cannot be unseen.

* * *

Tamsin finds the images of her kind in mortal artwork frankly hilarious.

The improbable armor. The shining raiment, the flowing hair. The wings, for love of everything truly holy. Perhaps worst of all the shining white horses, adorned with ridiculous wings as well.

_the horse of Gunnr sees fodder on the battlefield where twenty kings lie,_ Tamsin chants softly, because these humans have forgotten their own lore. She remembers her own steed, black as night, fangs sharper than a well-honed spear.

Humans use art to disguise the truth. Tamsin recalls the taste of blood between her teeth, and understands why.

* * *

The Rök Stone (Sweden, dating to 835) uses "horse of Gunnr"-a valkyrie-as a kenning for wolves.


	8. Chooser

**Chooser**

Character: Tamsin

Post-3x08. I'll need to say a lot more about this episode, but for now...

* * *

Of course Tamsin sees the death overshadowing Bo's face. It's clear in her sight, the apparition darkly manifest.

But then, that's her special "gift."

She knows this story. Valkyrie falls in love with the hero, hero dies. It's such a common trope that even humans sing about it. (Fuck Wagner, anyway.)

Knowing a thing and still not being able to avoid it? That's the definition of fate. But Tamsin also knows that fate can be averted with a sacrifice. Because it always, always comes down to blood.

She kisses Bo anyway. Being a Chooser doesn't mean she has a choice.


	9. In Vino Veritas

**In Vino Veritas**

Characters: Tamsin and Dyson, post 3x04.

* * *

Tamsin and Dyson go drinking.

They're thrown out of one bar, then two, and by the third Dyson is loose enough for Tamsin to take him to their true destination. A place where light and dark meet, nowhere so polite as a ritual battle-site or a waystation. A place for forbidden trysts in shadowed corners, for trading artifacts of the light for the pleasure of the dark and vice versa. Where the lines cross and blur until only gray fae remain.

Dyson's fun when he's not moping about Bo. Somehow, Tamsin can't pretend to disinterest as he talks about her.


	10. Mortal Veil

**Mortal Veil**

Tamsin, post 3x06.

* * *

Tamsin hates-

No, that's a lie. She loves unveiling her true face, letting the mortal seeming drop away.

There's always a price to be paid. It had been decades since she last unleashed her power. That she loosed it for this succubus and her human pet...

More than a pet, which was perhaps the point. Bo and Kenzi have a true bond, like to that Tamsin used to know with her own sisters. Of all things worth fighting for, that was the most precious. Perhaps she was becoming sentimental in her age.

Perhaps she's finally met someone worth fighting for.


	11. Origin Story

Character: Tamsin

Random musing. ...okay, this one is less a drabble than "speculation for really long fic crammed into 100 words."

* * *

Valkyries aren't born. They're chosen.

Of course at _some_ point each was born, in a previous life. At the end of that life, the hero was chosen by one of the valkyrjur and given a choice: spend eternity feasting in Valhalla or return to life as a valkyrie.

Fewer take that option than you'd think.

(What about the first valkyrie? Ask Odin. Just remember this is a god who sacrificed an eye for wisdom, and be prepared to pay a commensurate price.)

Thus Tamsin woke into her new life, whole and adult, with no memory preceding. A psychopomp needs none.


End file.
